A sixth-grade student at Liberty Elementary need a breather from class and visited the Leopard Lounge, the school’s wellness room.

After spending about 10 minutes there, the student returned to class.

“I just needed a break,” the student said. “It was getting too intense.”

At Liberty Elementary, students are learning not just traditional academics but also how to recognize and manage their emotions.

“It’s about teaching kids to notice how they’re feeling and give them tools to handle those feelings,” said school social worker Michelle Bouwman. “It’s empowering for them, rather than having to be sent to detention or miss out on a recess because of misbehavior.”

This approach helps students understand and regulate their emotions, said Andrea Hale, the school’s student and family wellness liaison.

“Our wellness room is a place where kids can calm down and figure out what they’re feeling,” she said. “We ask them, ‘Are you angry? Sad? Frustrated? Overwhelmed?’ Sometimes, a student will come in complaining of a stomachache because when they’re mad, their body reacts. We ask how their body feels to help them identify what’s going on inside. If a student is too upset, we reach out to Michelle and her team for further support.”

When emotions are running high, the staff helps students de-escalate.

“We help them move from an overwhelming state to a place where they can manage their emotions,” Bouwman said. “We guide them through co-regulation and then bring them back to the wellness room to continue identifying how they feel. The goal is to teach them how to recognize their emotions and use strategies that can help them regulate, whether in the wellness room or in the classroom’s calm down corner.”

Many classrooms at Liberty Elementary feature a calm down corner—designated spaces where students can take a short break. These areas often include soft pillows, fidget toys, and sometimes materials like paper and pencils to help students express their feelings through writing or drawing.

“We want to give them skills that they can take with them, not just to be successful in the classroom, but also out in the world so they can identify when they’re escalating, and be able to manage it,” Hale said.

In the wellness room, students will pick a puzzle or perhaps, one of those same tools to refocus in a quiet space. These activities engage their minds and bodies in problem-solving or sensory regulation.

“We’ve worked in classrooms to introduce students to these tools,” Bouwman said. “They know how to use them when they need to.”

The Leopard Lounge is not just for students; faculty and staff are also encouraged to use the wellness room as a resource.

For students who need extra support, she uses a tool called the Grump Meter to help them identify their emotional state.

The Grump Meter is a color-coded chart with five stages, ranging from “calm” at the bottom to “explode” at the top. It’s designed to teach students how to recognize when their emotions are escalating.

“If a student is close to the top, I give them a quiet space to de-escalate,” Bouwman said. “When they’re closer to calm, I ask restorative questions: ‘What happened? What were you thinking before? What needs to happen to make it better?’”

If a conflict involves other students, she works with them individually and ensures everyone is heard. When needed, she facilitates apologies and conflict resolution.

Bouwman, a licensed clinical social worker, is one of Murray City School District’s social workers, and she works with about 30 students at Liberty Elementary—roughly 12% of the school’s total enrollment.

Since the introduction of the Leopard Lounge, more students have been learning how to manage their emotions. From mid-October to mid-January, the wellness room saw 655 visits. Younger students often sought the room due to sadness, while older students were more likely to visit because of anger.

Hale emphasized the wellness room is not a counseling session but a safe space for self-regulation and to regain balance.

“This is a neutral space for students. They know coming here isn’t good and it isn’t bad,” she said. “There could be a dozen reasons why they come. It might be lack of sleep, experiencing a pet passing or something happened on the playground. Maybe the kid is going through a rough time or a student is new to the school. We’re here to provide them that needed break in a safe space before resetting to return to class.”

Bouwman noted a rise in emotional challenges among students.

“Whether it’s anxiety, worries or sadness, there has been an uptick,” she said. “I wish I could say there’s one thing that’s the reason why, but I think there’s more challenges in our world and with our families. I think COVID is part of it because that time we spent not around each other and learning and modeling from one another had an impact.”

Hale added, “There has been a huge focus on taking care of yourself and needing a mental health break every day, but now we’re seeing the pendulum swing the other way to ‘how do I self-regulate.’ Focusing on mental health is great, but they’re also learning how to manage that in a sustainable way so they can continue to be present in school and learn to do the hard things.”  λ